iOS 10 Update Issues – How to solve them!

EDIT: It appears this issue as been rectified by Apple, but if your phone has been “bricked”, this may help.

Like millions of other iPhone users today I was constantly checking my iPhone 6S for the release of iOS 10. And it seems, like many others, I saw the display asking me to plug the phone into iTunes. At the bottom of this post is a step-by-step guide to fixing your iOS device if you’ve got the same issue.

The problem appears to be trying to update “over the air”. Updating while plugged into iTunes worked for both my iPhone
6S and my wife’s iPhone 6S Plus AFTER trying over the air and being locked out.

As requested I fired up the Macbook, plugged in the lighting cable and opened iTunes. Why would it ask to do this? I assumed it was to verify the handset. However, iTunes was saying the phone was in “recovery mode”. I was greeted with the message saying that an update was available for version 9.X.X, (whatever the previous before iOS 10 was. Now I had two choices, either “upgrade” to this version or restore to factory settings. The later would result in losing all data and settings on the device.

So I chose update and the process began, the software was downloaded and installed. Once completed, the handset was back to how it was before I initiated the iOS 10 update.

As the phone was still plugged into iTunes a pop up appeared saying there was an update available. This time iOS 10.0.1. I double checked I had a backup completed at this point and proceeded with the update, and I’m pleased to say it’s worked and is operating exactly as you’d expect. All my data and settings are still present, even the apps I had running we’re still open.

So it seems the issue isn’t so much with iOS 10, but with trying to perform the update over the air. I had no issues updating through iTunes with the device plugged in.

And to further back this up further, exactly the same issue occurred on my wife’s iPhone 6S Plus. Both our phones are now up and running on iOS 10, now time to explore the new features.

The Fix: If your phone is stuck on the “plug into iTunes” screen:

Plug your iOS device into your PC or Mac and open iTunes.

Select your device in iTunes, then click “Update” (Version 9.X.X)

Allow the software to download and update.

Once complete your device should be back to its state before you tried to update to iOS 10.

Ensure you have a back up of you device.

With the device plugged into iTunes, select “Update”. (It should now offer iOS 10.0.1).

Follow the steps as normal, keeping the device plugged into iTunes until the update is complete.